Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn: A great tale of adventure

If the Japanese treasure beauty and honor, then Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn would for them be indeed a rare jewel. The book possesses such charm, adventure, and romance, that one is at once transported into the realm of the Otori and the lands beyond, the place where there lives a young boy named Tomasu. Across the Nightingale Floor is the story of his life, how he came home one day only to find his family massacred, how he escaped from the evil Lord Iida and how he was rescued by the benevolent Lord Otori. This Lord Otori, whose father and brother died in battle against Lord Iida, takes care of Tomasu, renames him as Takeo, and makes him his adopted son. Takeo soon grows to be a brilliant lad, skilled in the sword and the pen, charming and bright. He, being the son of a gifted assassin with special powers, is initiated into the arts of an order called The Tribe. He is quick to learn, and very soon made Lord Otori Shigeru proud of him.

But that’s just the beginning: Lord Otori is forced to marry the young Kaede, daughter of another feudal lord. He knows if he acquiesces to this plan, Lord Iida will destroy him and his people, so he devised a plan: Takeo will walk through the nightingale floor – a special floor that ‘sings’ or squeaks like a nightingale – and kill Lord Iida. Meanwhile, Kaede arrives in Lord Otori’s castle and upon seeing Takeo, instantly falls in love with him. Takeo notices this at once, and in no time they understand what feelings they have for each other. There are many subsequent plot twists and turns, but all of them are logical conclusions. All the characters act as they are supposed to act, based on their personalities, but the reader is still surprised, captivated, and awed by the action and adventure. Across the Nightingale Floor has echoes of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, but this observation would all the more point to the fact that the Tales of the Otori has indeed the qualities of an epic adventure, focused on one boy and his beloved.

There is a certain quality in the writing that makes it smooth and surprisingly eloquent. More surprising is the fact that Lian Hearn is an Australian, for many years a stranger to the Japanese way of life.

Takeo is not presented as a perfect being: indeed, he has many faults although it is not noticed as the book is written in the first-person point of view.

I can’t wait to read the second book of the Otori trilogy, Grass for His Pillow. I am confident that Hearn will not fail to sustain the beauty that is Kaede, the adventure that is Takeo.